Chris Lombardi puts defense and security under the spotlight, as he shares his takes on recent NATO and EU cooperation and provides insight into the company’s own long-term strategic partnerships in Europe.

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Meanwhile, demands on the Union to intervene in external theatres continue unabated and a new strategy of uniting European efforts is taking shape.

Europe has already proved its capacity to deal with emergencies in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Closer to home, Macedonia in former Yugoslavia was the scene of the EU’s first military operation, and the Union – deploying more than 6,000 troops – is now responsible for the stability of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Further afield, in the Caucasus, at the Egyptian frontier with the Palestinian territories and even in Indonesia’s Aceh province, the EU is carrying out missions to uphold peace and the rule of law.

These developments confirm the coherence of the work done on security and defence in the European Convention. A new sort of politics – more effective and committed – really is emerging. And it is precisely this which the Convention sought to encourage.

For it quickly became apparent to the Convention that defence had to be on the agenda: every opinion poll showed support for a strong European role in foreign policy, security and defence.

Admittedly the majority of EU member states are also part of the trans- Atlantic alliance.

However, along with Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the Convention’s president, we considered it unacceptable for the EU, qua political entity, to have no autonomous voice or means of action, when it came to security and defence issues.

During the deliberations of the Convention’s defence group, which I chaired, I listened carefully to the contributions of experts, political leaders, military people and industrialists. What I remember best from the long process of listening and dialogue is above all that procedures for maintaining or restoring peace and crisis management need to be simplified.

They need to be made more operational through reinforcement by the authority representing the Union in foreign and security matters and more effective by authorising groups of member states to act on the EU’s account.

We also proposed to include in the future constitution the concept of mutual defence, complementary to NATO’s. This was not to deny that NATO remains the basis of collective defence, but firmly to state the principle that European solidarity is something for Europeans to discuss.

To take account of the diversity of European positions and to respond to questions about effectiveness in an enlarged Union, we envisaged the possibility of reinforced co-operation in defence.

Finally, arms procurement issues were tackled. One of our proposals, which related to setting up a European defence agency, has actually been implemented already.

Because they are the fruit of almost two years of very thorough work, these recommendations form a kind of inventory of what needs to be, and can be, done by member states. In the immediate future we can and should pursue this by deepening co-operation already taking place.

The European Defence Agency has been up and running for a year. And in 2006, it was for the first time accorded an operational research budget of €5 million.

The structure of CFSP, the EU’s general staff, the military committee and the centre of operations have all been established without modifying the treaties, by extending the French and UK political impetus at Saint-Malo.

In future it will be necessary to develop autonomous planning and control of military operations. That is the point of the centre of operations project, which becomes operational in the next few months.

Co-operation continues on several fronts. The general staff of the European police was inaugurated in Italy on 23 January; tactical groupings have also become a reality. Such joint efforts are important.

Another, relatively new, aspect should also be mentioned – the mobilisation where necessary of military resources to relieve and manage civil crises. The possible creation of a European civil protection force, bringing together existing national or regional units, could be useful in cases of natural disaster.

My conviction is that the acquis of the EU constitution will be the guiding light for the next developments. The important thing is to bring the debate to life and to advance a common European political culture in this field.

Michel Barnier is a former European commissioner, a former member of the European Convention, former French foreign minister and president of the association Nouvelle République.